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Mohammed Omar
Mohammed Omar (1959-April 2013) was the President of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from 27 September 1996 to 13 November 2001, and the spiritual leader of the Taliban after the Afghanistan War. He led the Taliban militia during the Afghan Civil War in the 1990s and during the Afghanistan war in 2001-2013, and he died while in hiding in 2013. Biography Born in Nodeh in Uruzgan Province in the Kingdom of Afghanistan to a Sunni Muslim Pashtun family, Omar was known to be shy and non-talkative with foreigners. In the 1980s he lost an eye fighting against the Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan War, and emerged as the leader of the Taliban ("Students") organization after the war's end in 1989. With the Mujahideen going separate ways, he defeated the Northern Alliance of Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras (among others) and took control of southern Afghanistan, announcing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996. The Northern Alliance (divided between Abdul Rashid Dostum's Junbish-i-Milli forces in the northwest and Ahmad Shah Massoud's Jamiat-i-Islami forces in the northeast) fought the Taliban in the areas of northern Afghanistan with Pashtun minorities, using ethnic conflict to fight against the Pashtun Taliban. Omar had the support of Pakistan, a nation with a significant Pashtun population, and Pakistan sent up to 80,000 ISI special forces, Pakistan Army soldiers, and jihadists to fight in Afghanistan alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance. Mullah Omar continued to fight the Northern Alliance until 2001, when the United States invaded the country to root out the Al-Qaeda terrorists that Omar sheltered. The Americans deposed the Taliban government and Omar went into hiding, leading a Taliban insurgency against the Americans in most of the provinces. He lived in Karachi, Pakistan, in hiding. The government of Afghanistan knew his location, but they could not launch a raid, as it would violate Pakistan's sovereignty. Pakistan allowed several Taliban and al-Qaeda members to take refuge in their country, and Omar lived in Karachi until his death from natural causes in April 2013. His death was kept secret for two years until the Afghan government stated that he had died two years ago on 28 July 2015; the Taliban confirmed his death on 30 July 2015. The confirmation of his once-secret passing allowed the United States to serach for other terrorist leaders instead, although the news did not change much - a year after his death, in 2014, the Islamist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) gained territory larger than the size of Belgium in Syria and Iraq, owned land in Libya, and had sizeable forces in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was later claimed that Akhtar Mansoor poisoned the medicine that he required before shooting Omar when he refused to nominate him as his successor, although it was stated that he was killed in Zabul Province, a discrepancy; his son also denied that he was killed. Category:Taliban Category:Afghan presidents Category:Presidents Category:Afghans Category:Politicians Category:Afghan politicians Category:1959 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Sunnis Category:Afghan Islamists Category:Islamists Category:Killed